Rare Microphotographs Resurface After 150 Years

Drawing was a terribly important part of science until the mid-19th century. Without photography, scientists, particularly in the life sciences, had to document what they saw with painstaking illustrations. The clarity and "realness" of photographs eventually relegated scientific drawing to a hobby, but it didn't happen overnight. Photographers working at the microscopic scale had to devise new emulsion chemistries and types of equipment to capture clear images of tiny things.  Leading the charge was Auguste-Adolphe Bertsch, who worked to overcome any challenge that scientists threw at him. Unfortunately, he died during leftist social unrest in France in 1871. As a result, his pioneering work languished in the archives of the French photography society, Société française de photographie, until Corey Keller dug them up for her new exhibit about early scientific photography, Brought to Light Photography and the Invisible, at San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art. "Photographers would deposit their pictures with this organization sort of as a way of staking their claim to achievements," Keller told Wired.com. "So these pictures went there directly from the man who made them and have been there ever since." In this five-part series, we're walking through the Brought to Light exhibit with Keller, who spent five years scouring dusty archives, primarily in Europe, to dig up dozens of haunting photographs from the period. Many of the images have never been seen, except by their creators. This installment brings you the story of pioneering microphotographers like Bertsch and their struggle to bring technological advancement to traditional scientific practices.

More good images in the article...

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/microphotograph.html